Aboard the Holy Ship!! one gets to mix and mingle with big-name DJs.
"Hey, there's Zedd in line for pasta salad! Wow, there's Dillon Francis in the elevator! Oh damn, Diplo is out on the beach swimming with all the fans! Jackbeats just bought all those people shots!"
With this mesh of artists and commoners, there exists the possibility of a transcendent one-on-one situation. Kind of like when superfan Curtis Osesik of New Jersey was plucked from of the crowd to dance onstage with A-Trak and then found himself playing Fool's Gold hype man before hanging backstage and smoking with Skrillex.
Call it living the dream, Holy Ship!! style. And we spoke with him.
See also:
-Holy Ship!! 2013 Survival Guide: From Condoms to Shades
-Holy Ship!! 2013, Day One: Major Lazer, Justice, and Surprise Guest Skrillex!
-Holy Ship!! 2013: An Epic Three-Day Recap
-Fashion Freakouts Aboard Holy Ship!!
-Top Ten Dance Moves Aboard Holy Ship!! 2013 in Animated GIF!
Katie Bain A-Trak
Crossfade: So what happened?
Osesik: So I'm grabbing a drink with my roommate, and I have this cardboard cut-out of Obama. Everyone is loving this thing and taking photos and we go to the bar and a Fool's Gold promoter comes up to me and puts a sticker on Obama and asks if I want to dance for A-Trak. So I say, "Yeah, man, that sounds really chill. I'll be there."
And then?
He said I was going to get backstage access and a bunch of Fool's Gold swag sent to my house in Jersey. And then in an hour, I'm backstage with the Fool's Gold head on [below] thinking, "I can't believe I'm about to do this." I mean, I love to dance. I don't really know how to. But when I was up there, I was just thinking of music videos from YouTube and trying to bust out the Charleston and "Cotton Eye Joe" and stuff like that.
How did it feel?
The rush that I had was unreal. Being backstage and meeting the artists ... I mean, you expect to run into them around the ship and everything. But I literally was hanging out with A-Trak, Diplo, Gary Richards, and Big Gigantic back there.
Why did you have that Obama cutout?
He's a very important person. I felt like it was important for him to be here with us.
What was the best part of the experience?
Talking with Gary Richards, because he's the one that created everything here. I gave him mad props. Oh, and smoking a cigarette with Skrillex. I've never done that before.
Photo by Katie Bain
Did the gig give you a better sense of what it's like to be a DJ?
Yeah, totally. When you have the Fool's Gold mask on and you raise your hands up and everyone starts cheering, that's the greatest feeling in the world. And coming from New Jersey, which was like 30 degrees, to the Bahamas where it's 80 degrees, was awesome. Plus, there's this whole community of fans and artists and everyone treats everyone else like family. It's really amazing. And getting on a first-name basis with these artists is a pretty cool thing.
How does this compare to your other festival experiences?
This is the top of the festival pyramid right here. I'm going to go home and go to a show next week and be like, "Damn, this sucks."
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